Cookies For The Commissioners (And Firefighters)

Hannah Warshaw opened the March 25 Board of Fire Commissioners meeting by presenting a gift to the commissioners: more than 100 boxes of Girl Scout cookies, to be distributed among Newtown’s fire companies.

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The Warshaw family — from left is Stephen, Hannah, Cynthia, and Anderson — drove to Newtown from Warren on Monday to help Hannah deliver her gift to the Board of Fire Commissioners.

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Hannah Warshaw and her family visited Newtown Monday night, bringing a gift that Hannah had been working on for a few weeks.

Hannah, who is a Brownie Girl Scout in her hometown of Warren, thought of Newtown’s firefighters when it was time for Girl Scout Cookie Season this year.

“I have learned how important it is to help others and to say thank you to those who have helped others,” Hannah told the Board of Fire Commissioners during their meeting on March 25. The 7-year-old, wearing her brown, badge-covered Brownie vest, was a special guest at the beginning of Monday’s meeting. Fire Commissioners Chair Rob Manna introduced Hannah, who faced the small gathering of attendees at Botsford firehouse. Behind her, at a long table, were Mr Manna’s fellow commissioners, listening as she shared her story.

“My dad is a first responder and the ambulance captain from the town of Warren,” Hannah said. Watching her father’s actions has been one way the second grader has learned to help others. She may follow her father’s footsteps when she grows up (she says she is already thinking about becoming an EMT), but her passion is animals, so she may become a veterinarian, she said.

“When I went to sell my Girl Scout cookies, I asked everybody who was buying some for themselves if they would also buy at least one box for the Newtown Hook & Ladder, Dodgingtown Volunteer Fire Company, Hawleyville Volunteer Fire Company, Sandy Hook Fire & Rescue Company, and the Botsford Fire & Rescue Company,” she said. To Hannah’s right were five stacks of Girl Scout cookies. Each stack was wrapped in cellophane, and then wrapped and topped with ribbon and a bow.

“I am so happy to tell you that I sold 410 boxes of cookies, and that over 100 of those boxes were donated just for you,” she said, smiling. Looking on from behind the rows of chairs were Hannah’s parents, Cynthia and Stephen, and her brother, Anderson.

Hannah’s efforts raised “a lot of money,” she said, for the Girl Scouts of America, including her troop, Brownie Troop 10498.

She and her family made the trip to Newtown this week, she told the commissioners with a laugh, because they didn’t get delivered soon, “I was afraid my dad would eat them all.”